concept, especially by nontaxonomically trained authors. I have often used, as final arbiter of
scientific names and sometimes common names, the nomenclature database at the USDA (www.ars-
grin.gov; curator, Dr. John. H. Wiersema: [email protected]).
Unfortunately, the new American Herbal Products Association (AHP) book on nomenclature
arrived too late for our consideration. Attempts to standardize common names, although admirable,
are often aggravating to special interests. It was with some misgiving that I arranged this book
alphabetically by common names, when the first edition was by scientific name. It generated big
headaches for all of us who think more along the lines of scientific names. Would it be under
mulberry or black mulberry, chamomile or German chamomile? Some plants have dozens of
common names. Several have suffered almost as many scientific names, such as, for example,
feverfew. Hopefully, you will find it easy to use.
In the Activities and Indications sections, parenthetical numbers are followed by three-letter
abbreviations (abbreviation of source) or an alphanumeric X-1111111 to identify PubMed citations.
A parenthetical efficacy score of (1) means that a chemical in the plant or in an extract of the plant
has shown the activity or proven out experimentally (animal, not clinical) for the indication. This
could be
in vitro
animal or assay experiments. A hint: not real human proof! Nothing clinical yet!
I give it a score of (2) if the aqueous extract, ethanolic extract, or decoction or tea derived from
the plant has been shown to have the activity, or to support the indication in clinical trials.
Commission E (KOM) and Tramil Commission (TRA) approvals were automatically given a score
of (2) also, because they represented consensus opinions of distinguished panels. The rare score
of (3) for efficacy means that clinical trials exist to show that the plant itself (not just an extract
or phytochemical derivative) has the indications or activities. The solitary score of (f) in many of
the citations means it is unsupported folk medicine, or I have not seen the science to back it up.
The three-letter abbreviations are useful short citations of the references consulted in arriving at
these numbers. I have by no means cited every source. However, unlike KOM and hopefully better
than PHR, we indicate at least one source for every indication and activity we report.
Thus, we have a score for Safety and a score for Efficacy, the latter backed up by the three-
letter abbreviations or citations, often PubMed citations. In addition to our three letter abbreviations
for the frequently consulted texts, we occasionally cite articles cited from the PubMed database
with their unique abstract number, preceded by the letter X. For example, I received a paper showing
that ginger contained several COX-2 inhibitors. I looked in the PubMed database to find the unique
abstract citation number, PMID: 11437391, which I shortened for database purpose to X11437391.
So, all alpha-numeric (X-numerical) combinations will refer you to the source in the PubMed
database. Whenever I update one of my Herb-a-Day columns, I automatically search PubMed for
species name AND 2000 <, which automatically gives me the post 1999 abstracts. In 2001, I
search for >species AND 2001<. Then I order hard copies of those articles that look promising for
database purposes.
Often, many more than 10 sources were involved in my decision-making. In many instances,
I limited citations to three, typically the ones that were most important at arriving at my scores.
Not wanting to blow my own horn, my own books were first to be deleted from the list when it
exceeded three. In preparing this edition I realized that for patent litigation, the earlier citations
were most valuable, so at the last minute I added several older references, such as DEP, FEL, HHB,
and MAD. For example, even I was surprised when I read about Remifemin in HHB (1973, p. 12),
three decades ago, since Remifemin seems so new here in America. But in my mind it is just
another native American remedy, coming back home to us, slightly upgraded, after having been
better studied in Europe than it has been in America (other examples include evening primrose,
passionflower, and saw palmetto). DEP and FEL citations are more than 100 years old, and might
be useful in challenging frivolous patents.
One very important abbreviation, WAM, might as well be viewed as MOM, meaning pediatric.
This comes from the excellent book,
Kids, Herbs, Health
, by Dr. Linda White, MD, and Sunny